Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Think about the power of applause. Have you ever been at a concert? Maybe an awards show or a sports arena? And you've been with a large audience and the crowd is wrapped up in some kind of celebration or applause.
I think of high school basketball games where my boys played high school basketball, and I can remember one season in particular where they had made the playoffs. We were in a couple of these high school gymnasiums and there were points in the game where the applause, it was deafening. I mean, you couldn't hear anything else. You couldn't even talk to the person next to you.
The Power of Praise
And I'm not so much talking about the volume, but I'm talking about everyone being totally enraptured with what was going on in this game. I'm talking about this high level of excitement. It was really electrifying. I do think that this description in Psalm chapter 150 is describing that kind of praise that we need to give to God. It's the very last Psalm.
Psalm 150 is, and no surprise, this book of Psalms, this collection of songs. That's what they are. No surprise that it closes with this call for us to praise and to worship God. The very last verse of this psalm of all the Psalms is familiar to you, I bet. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And here the psalmist says, praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heaven.
God's Presence in Worship
Have you ever stopped to think when I worship God, when I praise Him, when you're in your local church on a Sunday morning and you're singing songs to God, have you ever stopped and thought, Where is God right now? Is God in the heavens? Is God here with us? Where is He when we praise Him? Is He there? Is He here? Is it both?
Maybe you've heard this. Sometimes people will even invite God to come when we worship Him. I don't know about that. No invitation is needed. God is with us when we worship. This Psalm points out very clearly that when we worship God, He is not coming to us, we are coming before Him. And God is there worthy of our worship and worthy of our admiration and adoration as He sits on His throne, in His throne room, in His sanctuary, in the heavens.
And so Psalm 150, it reminds us of this. So here's a challenge for me, for you today. When you take time to worship God in prayer and word and song, when you worship God, or the next time you do, why don't you picture God on His throne in His throne room, in His sanctuary, in the heavens, that He is there receiving your praise?
And may that inspire deeper worship and awe in us as we consider where God is, as He receives our praise.
